Time Warp
by The Not So Diligent Penguin
Summary: Sakura selfishly screws up the past and now the others have to try and fix it but along the way, they learn that there is more to Naruto that they've thought.  This story is officially dead
1. Chapter 1

Time Warp

Climbing over the ruins of a once bustling marketplace, Sakura sighed as she rolled up her imaginary sleeves before getting to work. War had come to her village, Konohagakure, and it survived, but at a cost. Many had died, the village itself was almost completely leveled along with much of world but one death haunted her most.

"Sasuke…" Sakura whispered as she lifted up a colossal pillar with one hand. Throwing it onto a pile, Sakura let out a deep sigh. "Why did you to die?"

Working in silence, Sakura was in her own world indifferent to the world around her as she played in her head again like an old video. Memories flashed off her with him, when they first met at ninja academy and she fell in love, when they worked and fought together in a three man team and finally, when he said goodbye to her. Underneath his cold exterior burned a vengeance too hot for her to extinguish and eventually he left to pursue until eventually he was consumed with rage to the point that he turned his sword towards his former home.

Eventually he was killed and yet despite everything he had done, Sakura's heart refused to forget about him. Each and every moment, it seemed to scream and weep keeping her wide awake at night, and dead in the day. With a final heft she raked her hands through her short, pink hair as she looked up to see the sun set on yet another meaningless day pass by. Walking to her personal make-shift tent, someone soon joined her inside.

"Hey Sakura," a spiky, blonde-haired man said as he entered the room, "You alright?"

Sakura didn't look at him as she sat down on a chair to look at a new report.

"Sakura," the man said pleading with his sky blue eyes, "There's a party going on today to celebrate the peace. You want to come? Even Gaara is coming from Sunagakure…"

Sakura looked up at him with a piercing and cold glare before returning to her papers. "No thanks Naruto."

"Sakura" Naruto said as he shifted uncomfortably, "It's been a years since 'that' happened, it's… it's… don't you think it is time to… you know? Move on?"

Sakura face twisted in anger. "Move on? MOVE ON!"

Sakura slammed her hands on the table as she sat up to glare at him causing Naruto to flinch. "How dare you? It's because of YOU that Sasuke is dead!

"Sakura please," Naruto said as he tried to approach her.

"No," She said shoving him back onto his back as tears began to stream down her neck, "You promised to bring him back! You promised to bring him back but you killed him!"

Turning her back to him, she gave him one final look. "I never want to see you again."

Naruto slowly got up with a sad look on his face before he finally slowly trudged out to leave her to brood in silence. Returning to her chair, Sakura massaged her forehead as she tried to calm down.

_That… that… he has no idea what I'm feeling right now because of him. Well, none of this matters anyway, because after today, everything will be as it should be._

Looking at a pendent around her neck she took a deep breath. The Time Amulet, it was a powerful artifact of the first shinobi and with it she could go back in time before it all began. She could save the one she loved, prevent him from every going down the dark path he did. All she had to do, was go back to that time, that moment where Sasuke lost his entire family to his own brother, Itachi.

If she could stop him that day, Sasuke would never have a need for revenge and with that, he wouldn't have to die. She had to this she said to herself. She had to.

Lifting the pendent, she watched as it glowed bright and in a flash, the world seemed to rewind around her. The tents faded away piece by piece, the piles of rubble began to shift all over slowly reassembling itself with the trees suddenly returning to form a large forest until finally the entire village was restored and after that images of people flashed around her for what seemed like hours until finally, everything stopped as she back in her fully restored village.

"Alright, here it goes"

Weaving quickly through the streets, Sakura made her way towards Sasuke's old home: The Uchiha Compound. Sneaking past the guards Sakura made her to the head building unnoticed as her breath stopped for an instant. Right in front of her, training beside an old tree was Sasuke. With his signatures spiky hair, the little boy glowed with a smile that Sakura had never seen in her lifetime but this was no time to get woozy for her. Slapping her face lightly, Sakura ran inside to find her target. Knowing the structure thoroughly, Sakura knew where she needed to go and soon enough, there she was: In Fugaku Uchiha's room. Sasuke's father, he was the only one who could stop what was about to happen and thankfully he wasn't here. Taking out a folder, Sakura laid it down on the table and hopefully with that, he can stop Itachi. At this point her pendent glowed brightly signaling her time was up.

Meanwhile, in the future…

"Hey, Shikamaru…" Naruto said as he saw his lazy comrade before very suddenly… going poof!

"What is it Naru- Naruto? Where are you?" Shikamaru said as he looked around before suddenly noticing something. "What the fuck!"

At this point Sakura had returned finding that everything had gone strange. Rifts of blue light split everything even the ground and sky oddly enough, the moon was out and certainly from how it should look. Bathed in blood red and lacking any craters it turned the sky dark purple as the sun seemed to weak to stop it. But where was Sasuke in all this?

As she ran around amidst the panicking people and the shinobi screaming orders, she struggled to make any sense of this. What happened? She prevented Sasuke from siding with them so why is this happening?

"Sakura!" A voice screamed out amidst the crowds.

Running towards her was Rock Lee, martial arts expert of Konoha in his usual green suit, thick black eyebrows and bowl cut. Finally reaching her, he panted loudly as he tried to catch his breath.

"Sakura… everyone… needs… to get… to gather outside… the Hokage tower… immediately."

Rushing with him to a swelling group of shinobi, everyone was panicking as they tried to avoid getting close to the many rifts that were still forming. More importantly however, the people were frightened because of the rumor of a certain hero's disappearance.

"Where's Naruto" One ANBU shouted.

"Where is he? Is this Madara's work? Has Naruto been killed."

"SILENCE!"

As the leader of the village revealed herself, she seemed extremely stressed with a likely hangover not helping.

"Everyone, it appears that Madara has survived and based on these rifts, he has tampered with the past. Now importantly, when was the last time anyone saw Naruto?"

"I think I saw him last just before he disappeared." Shikamaru said raising his hand, "It was around an hour ago I think but I only heard him, when I turned around he was gone."

"Alright, now everyone needs to remain on high alert and everyone, I need you to fan out to the other countries to gather information so head to Shizune for your orders."

As everyone made their way Sakura suddenly felt someone grab her shoulders.

"You and the other Rookie Nine are to head to Tsunade directly." Said the ANBU who was behind her.

Gulping loudly, Sakura went inside to find all the other Rookies along with Iruka and Kakashi, Naruto's teachers shifting around uncomfortably unsure of what was going on as the looked at Tsunade who was rubbing her temples.

"Shikamaru." Tsunade said finally.

"…Yes."

And suddenly before anyone could react, his shadow extended binding itself to Sakura's paralyzing her.

"Tsu-Tsunade, what's going on?"

Tsunade ignored her as she reached towards her neck. Grasping the pendent, Tsunade's face darkened.

"Sakura… What have you _done?"_


	2. Chapter 2

The Teacher Returns To Action!

Moments later, the entire room was utterly silent. Sakura had just been dragged away and now, everyone's eyes were focused on the strange pendent in Tsunade's.

Swallowing air, Ino finally decided to break the silence. "Lady Tsunade…? What's going on?"

Tsunade took a deep breath as she finally set the pendent down safely.

"What we have here is an object so powerful that it was believed that even the Sage of Six Paths never used it in fear of its power. It's called the Jewel of God's Jest. It allows the user to go back in time to change things and evidently, Sakura has used it."

Everyone tensed at hearing this except for the calm Shikamaru who then stepped forward.

"Then what's the catch? What's preventing us from just going back an hour or two ago and stopping Sakura from doing it?"

"Perceptive as always Shikamaru. The problem is that in order to go back in time, the Jewel opens portals and whenever the destination is a … "shock wave" if you will, is created. The event of her exiting the portal is frozen preventing it from ever being rewritten preventing a paradox if she killed herself and second, the wave prevents anyone from ever being able to go to any time before that portal was made and some time afterward."

"So… There's nothing we can do to stop her or whatever she did then." Shikamaru stated as more of a fact than a question.

"Yes, that's how it got its name, to perhaps punish and play with those who are foolish enough to try to alter the past."

"Then Lady Tsunade, how should we fix it?"

"There's only one way and quite frankly it might not even be possible and that is to go as far back as we can and try to fix it, namely get Naruto back. Unfortunately, this poses other problems as well. There is a limited amount of time a person can be in the past and afterward, a scarring wave which both depend on how far in the past we are and worst yet, each person can only go back once."

"Soooo, who goes first?" The unkempt Kiba asked.

"I should go." A man with a cross shaped scar said resolutely.

"Iruka would be best given that he knew Naruto when he was youngest but are you sure you are up for it?" Shikamaru said eyeing him.

"Yes, plus Naruto has never talked about his past to me, maybe now I can figure out why."

"Alright, but keep in mind, there are limitations to what you can do in the past. First, you can't use force in the past and two, Naruto cannot learn that you are from the future. Now are you ready because we need to start as soon as possible or our entire world might collapse."

"I am." Iruka said as he transformed into regular orange haired civilian.

"Then here all you have to do is focus on going as far back as possible and you should end up whenever you need to be. We'll be watching you from this crystal ball."

Iruka took the pendent and watched as everything slipped away and rewind and thought drifted to the mystery that was Naruto's past. He remembered when he first saw him when he was just eleven years old. Cheerful when people were looking at him, Iruka noticed that occasionally, he seemed extremely serious. Eventually, Iruka became close but even though, Naruto never actually seemed to open up to him. Questions about his past were deflected and while Iruka wanted to press further, it never seemed to work. Iruka wished he tried harder.

Such thoughts were pushed aside though as the rewinding stopped leaving him in the middle of the old bustling marketplace. As he walked around he realized that he needed to figure out where Naruto was. Unfortunately, as he suspected, no one knew or cared.

"Excuse me, do you know where child Naruto Uzumaki." Iruka asked one woman.

"Hopefully dead."

Iruka balled his fists in rage after hearing things like this again and again but remembering what Tsunade said, he kept himself under control. After all he told himself, he didn't think much Naruto when they first met so how could he blame them. Finally cooling down, Iruka decided to see if Naruto was at his apartment.

Weaving his way through the bustling streets, Iruka watched everyone around him and couldn't help but breath the nostalgia. The village had just recovered from the Demon Fox's Attack and everyone was still alive now. So many had been lost in the war and seeing some familiar faces couldn't help but make him remember some good times.

Such feelings however, were quickly replaced by shock as he reached Naruto's apartment. Running up the stairs, Iruka looked in horror as to what was in front of him. The door had been ripped off its hinges and on it was a ton of black paint.

"Demon... Monster… Die… Worthless shit." Iruka said to himself as he read each and every world slowly. Based on all this, the dark room inside probably wasn't going to be pretty. The lights and windows had all been shattered with the pieces scattered all over the floor and the room was ransacked. Nothing was left intact with even the counters and sinks smashed with graffiti everywhere and some people had defecated in places giving a foul stench. Trying to find anything that could give him a hint as to where Naruto was, Iruka combed through everything. Still, there was nothing that even looked like it belonged to Naruto. In fact based on the condition of the apartment, it had likely been abandoned for a week or so. So that left the question, where was Naruto?

The Hokage then? He must know Iruka thought as he rushed to him frantically. Heading there in a few minutes, Iruka ran in to see the secretary.

"Do you have an appointment sir?" The woman asked.

"No, but I just need to ask a question concerning Naruto." Iruka said as he breathed heavily.

The woman's eyebrows slanted as she heard this. "What are you doing troubling the Hokage concerning that monster."

"No, I just need to ask-"

"Listen, don't bother the Hokage about that worthless piece of shit."

"I… just… need… to know… where he is." Iruka said growling under his breath.

"Well, I don't know and I don't care."

"You should! His home was raided-"

"Yeah, so? You done?" The woman said clearly losing her patients as she shook her head in frustration.

Iruka couldn't believe what he was hearing. "How can you say-"

"Listen! The little asshole made a complaint about it a few days ago okay! So yeah I know and I don't care! He deserves it! So get the fuck out before I call in the ANBU and throw you out!"

Iruka stared at her wide eyed as he slowly walked out in disbelief. Was this what Naruto had to deal with? Did no one help him? As he exited the Hokage's tower, he knew this would be difficult to say the least. He had retired from his life as a shinobi in favor in teaching for more than a decade and if Naruto was homeless, he probably wasn't even going to be in the village anymore. He needed to think then, where would Naruto go and how? Then it hit him hard!

"That house! Of course!" He exclaimed. "How could I have forgotten that place?"

It was the place where Naruto first fought for the right to become a shinobi. The place that Naruto mastered the Kage Bunshin and no one else knew of course!

The place was in much worse shape now then it was back then but he was right. Naruto was here recently although it seemed like Naruto had no intention of returning. On a wall stood a ragged map and with it were symbols with each village and a single "x". He was heading to the Land of Rivers.

"God," Iruka said to himself, "How far has Naruto gone?"

The world at this time, fresh of war and heading out undefended was tantamount to suicide. He'd need to intercept him at the river between the countries if he wanted to save to boy. He wasn't a Chunin for nothing though. Swimming though the woods with ease, Iruka was quick to find the tracks of a small boy by a river and as he followed more signs appeared. Broken branches, make shift shelter but also the smell… of blood. Naruto was wounded.

Hours later…

The sun was setting now as Iruka continued without rest following the small trail left behind and just as he was about to call it a day, in the distance, there was a small lump. There Naruto was but his state was horrific. Rushing over, Iruka quickly turned him over to find the boy passed out with several caked over wounds all over his body.

"Hello? Hello!" Iruka said shaking Naruto gently. The boy was barely breathing and as he tried to move him, Iruka found it incredibly hard. Was this also a consequence of time travel? Regardless, the further he went the heavier Naruto got until finally, he wouldn't even budge. Getting him underneath a tree at least, Iruka rested him against it as he went to search for medicine. The ones on his back were particularly bad with whip like cuts in them showing signs of infection not to mention the state of his legs which not only were cut, showed the wearing of walking such distances with little rest. Working slowly to clean out Naruto's wounds and apply the herbs, the boy occasionally twitched in reflexive pain. Doing all he can, Iruka built a fire and as he watched the boy crying in his sleep.

"…Mama…" He said occasionally in his sleep.

'Who the hell is his mother?' Iruka thought as he heard this. Never once did he hear of this ever. Not once. Was this a secret? Or was this a change made by Sakura? As he laid down besides Naruto, he wanted to ask so many things to Naruto when he returned from oblivion but all that had to wait. He needed to make sure Naruto survived first. Gathering as much food and wood as he could Iruka laid asleep as he watching to poor boy quiver quietly.

The next day

As the first light of dawn crept over the horizon, Iruka instantly awoke just in time to see Naruto trudging down to road. Shaking off any grogginess, Iruka jumped right in front of him.

"What are you doing? You're in no condition to be moving at all!" Iruka said as he placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder in worry.

Naruto glared at him fiercely.

"I'm fine. Now get out of the way."

Looking at Naruto, the wounds had mostly healed over the night and despite still looking ragged the boy eyes burned with power. Pushing past Iruka, Iruka found himself powerless to stop him.

"Look at yourself!" Iruka pleaded, "You don't even have any food, how do you expect to make it all the way to the Land of Rivers?"

"Whatever," Naruto responded, "I don't care, at least I'm not in the village anymore."

Iruka was speechless at what he heart. Was this the same boy he knew? No wonder the future was the way it was.

"Wait, Naruto... Let me help." Iruka said finally giving up. Taking the front, Iruka started clearing the branches out the way with his kunai.

Naruto on the other hand couldn't believe what he was seeing. Opening his mouth repeatedly like a fish Naruto ultimately decided to silently observe this strange man. Resting at a river after an hour, Naruto sat down to rub his blistering feet.

"Here" Iruka said holding some crushed leaves. "These will help."

Bending down, Iruka tried to rub them on Naruto's feet only for him to pull back and snarl.

"I'm only trying to help."

"Yeah right, I don't your kind of help."

"What's your problem? I'm only trying to help." Iruka said losing his patience.

"You reek of Konoha… why should I trust you?"

"… Fine then..." Iruka said taking his hands back, "I won't touch you so just calm down."

"Grrrr…"

That sound was not from Naruto's mouth however but rather his stomach. Blushing in embarrassment, Naruto turned his back to Iruka as he went out into the woods. Following the boy, Naruto soon found a river and standing waist deep in it, tried fruitlessly to catch the fast moving fish below.

"Grrrrrr…"

"AGHHH!"

*Splash!*

Sending a torrent of water into the air, Naruto was completed soaked and trembling with both fury and cold. Thrashing about in a rampage, Naruto was soon panting heavily having done nothing but scare the fish away.

Trying to hold in a laugh, Iruka walked next to him.

"You won't be able to catch fish like that." Iruka said putting a hand on his shoulder before being quickly shrugged off. "Here I have a fishing line on me, try fishing that way."

Taking out a line wrapped around a spool with a hook, Iruka held it out for Naruto who was watching intently.

"Here, I'll show you how it's done." Iruka said as he slowly unrolled it. Digging some worms out of the ground nearby, Iruka placed one on the hook before tossing it into the water and in a matter of minutes, Iruka got a small fish.

"See? Now why don't you try it, that is… unless you don't you can do it."

Naruto's eyes widened at the challenge and sloshing out of the water Naruto grabbed it out of his hand and in a matter of minutes was sitting there with a scowl as he waited. And waited. And waited…

"AGHHH FUCK THIS!" Naruto said throwing the it aside, "I'm leaving!"

Iruka groaned in frustrations. And he thought Naruto was difficult before. Naruto sat down next to river bed resting his blistering feet wincing from the pain as he tried to massage them gently. Iruka never gave up on him before though and now wasn't the time to start.

"Now come on, don't give up now," Iruka said picking it back up, "Now throw it more like this"

Placing it back in his hand, Iruka guided his hand to throw it gently into the water. Minutes passed and the veins in Naruto forehead began popping in anger.

"Calm down" Iruka said smiling, "Sometimes it can take time."

"You mean like it did with you?" Naruto said raising his eyebrow.

"That was just really lucky ok, it's normally that easy."

"Yeah right, you're probably just-"

Suddenly the string tightened pulling Naruto forward a little.

"See now yank up quick and start reeling it in!"

Naruto face lit up with determination as he did as he was told. Reeling a fish much larger than the one Iruka got, Naruto smiled widely as he held it up to look at. Taking it back, Naruto gathered up some wood and in short time, had a fire going with the fish on sticks. Resting by the fire, Iruka needed to know more.

"So Naruto, who taught you how to build a fire?"

"My mom did."

"But you're in the academy right?"

"I was."

"They didn't teach you?"

Naruto gave him a look of disbelief "…No…"

"Huh… And your mo-"

"I don't want to talk about her." Naruto said downcast as he stared at the fire with his glazed.

"… So what are you going to do once you reach the River Country?"

"Who knows" Naruto said shrugging, "I'll find out later."

"But do you really think life will be better there? I mean, that area is going through a lot right now and a lot of it was destroyed in the last war so going right now… I mean… Are you sure?"

"Yeah, you're mostly right, but what else would there be for me? I can't stay in here or else the hokage will find me and the same could happen if I tried to hide in the Lightening country. And everywhere else Konoha has destroyed. The River Country is the best option."

"You've really thought about this haven't you?" Iruka said sadly, "But you know, maybe things could get better if you stayed."

Naruto gave him that look again this time raising an eyebrow.

"Are you from the village?" Naruto asked skeptically.

"Uh, no but well, I visit often enough." Iruka said trying to stay undercover.

"Hmm, have you ever been inside the orphanage?"

Iruka paused to think about this before realizing something. Despite knowing where it was, Iruka was never there. He was 11 when he lost his parents and after all that, well Iruka was given an apartment by the Hokage to stay in until he became a genin shortly after and by the time he met Naruto, he had one of his own.

"I suppose not."

"Then you really have no idea do you?"

That was not a good response to hear. Was Naruto's life so terrible and what was Naruto thinking when Iruka talked to Naruto? When he said he knew what it was like to be in orphan, were Naruto's grunts a sigh of acknowledgement? Or were they a sign of exasperation?

"Was it that bad?" Iruka asked tentatively.

"… Was it that bad…? They treat us like garbage there!" Naruto clenching his fist, "There was never enough food or anything there and beat us over anything so we can't even speak out! In fact, if it wasn't my mother I would have died there like everyone else!"

Naruto was now standing and panting.

"And you know what else I hate? Those stupid Uchihas and other clans! They constantly brag about how they're better than us and if we say or do anything about it, we get beaten blue and red I'm sick of it!"

Iruka struggled to think of what to say. Was all this range always in Naruto?

"Why didn't you say something to the Hokage?"

"I tried." Naruto whispered before sitting back down and putting his head in his hands, "I tried...I had a friend once. At the orphanage. She was the only one nice to me. But she was really weak and…"

"And she died." Iruka said finishing his thought.

"Yeah… she just wasted away. I begged everyone to help her and I even tried to ask the Hokage who terrified me but they wouldn't let me see him. They said that the Hokage shouldn't be troubled with 'insignificant scum' like me. I promised that day that I would become the strong and never let anything like that happen again to anyone but then my mom... anyway, I'm not going back."

"So you just gave up?"

"I already failed, what's the point of staying?"

"You can still keep trying."

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Why should I waste my time?"

"Because-" Iruka started "Because you have the power can change the world."

"Really? You don't even know me and you think I'm special?"

"You are special" Iruka said putting a hand on Naruto's shoulder.

"Yeah, ok if you answer this question, then maybe I'll listen to you."

Iruka couldn't help but smile a little at hearing this. "Anything."

"… What's my connection to the Kyuubi and the 4th Hokage?"

…shit…


End file.
